AP Exclusive: Conn. rethinks costly fuel cells

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FUEL_CELLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-20-12-27-52

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- After spending millions of dollars to run a state complex with fuel cells, partly to boast of their size and also to tout a homegrown industry, Connecticut officials concede privately that the cost is too high and they're looking to get out of a complicated, long-term contract.

The state spends $1.4 million every year for the fuel cells at its 10-year-old juvenile center, an amount that Connecticut's energy commissioner, Daniel Esty, called excessive in an email Sept. 6 to the governor's budget chief.

"The fuel cells installed were oversized for the facility to be able to `brag' about it being the largest fuel cell installation in the world" at that time, he wrote in the email that was obtained by The Associated Press in a Freedom of Information request.

He was responding to a message from the budget chief, Benjamin Barnes, who said removing the fuel cells would save that $1.4 million each year - "real money by any measure."